JUST A STUPID VIDEO

Madis Kukk has been around since the beginning. He was probably one of the first fifty members on Scooter Resource. He is a company owner, rider, and videographer. He has always had strong pride for where he comes from and this video is going to show why. The reason for featuring this full length is I always knew Estonia had a scooter scene, but I knew nothing about it because there werenʼt many videos. This full length shows how awesome a scooter scene can be in a place that would take you awhile to find on a map. Everybody in the video kills it, and they deserve the recognition that other people could get easier.

How long did you film for this video?

First off, thanks for the great lead, much appreciated, haha. Most of the material is from 2013, but we do have a few clips that originate from 2012.

What was the film for?

Arco, Harley, Mikael and I just wanted to create some pure raw stupid fun while making something out of nothing, in which something would turn into a spot. Cause scooters were originally built to get from point A to point B, but the fact that you can unlock so much creativeness and fun by doing stupid shit on scooters is what’s awesome about them. Hence the name of the video. Just insert two beers or a glass of tasty whiskey before watching the video, haha.

On the other hand this decent-length edit is a nice way to display the spots in Estonia for the locals and the viewers abroad while portraying the riders behind Rebel. Each one of them in my opinion has a pretty unique approach towards scootering which is why I love them all and I’m glad all of them are a part of Rebel.

In what way did the local shop, rebel, help out?

Gas bills, video equipment, scooter parts, trips. When anyone of the dudes was feeling up for discovering something new or just up for a random challenge, they’d call me or vice versa and I’d usually try to take them to spots where they’ve never been before. They are always fun to hang out with anyways.

What inspired you to make a full length instead of short edits?

For most of the time we’ve kept a policy that we make minivideos consisting of the adventures that happened on the trips. But at some point years ago we realized that there are almost no scooter videos showcasing Estonian spots. I mean we have a shit ton of riders here and a handful of “street” footage but kids here tend to think that “street” is stairs, curbs and ledge-dance-type tech riding only while there’s just so much more creativeness to unleash. I sometimes spent nights lurking on Google Street View and went driving solo just to look for potential spots or to confirm that if they are rideable before bringing anyone else there with me to have some fun and film the process – and now we’re just hooked with this idea that we have to conquer anything that’s remotely rideable, even if it sometimes requires using a “dirt” scooter. It has become a funny addiction.

I used to go out riding without taking any cameras with me but luckily I managed to change that habit and this video is what you can call the result of it. I’m super psyched that the dudes I ride with were all in for this, so shoutout to all the guys who participated, including the guys in the friends’ section – you all killed it. With the amount of material that was piling up, the four of us knew that each and everyone of us was gonna have a solo part instead of a collaborative minivideo that we usually do on trips abroad. We had a ton of fun filming for this, so this edit is a kind of a way to celebrate a chapter of our lives, plus this is something that we’re giving back to the community – personally I hope if we get at least one local shredder to change the way they look at the urban environment (ledges, walls, grassbanks, rooftops, you name it), I’d die happier.

Many people donʼt even know where Estonia is on a world map. Do you think this will bring light to the scooter scene there?

I don’t expect people outside Estonia to know where Estonia is. It would be the same if the americans asked us if we knew where Minnesota state is (hell, find me an american that can name all fifty states in one go, haha). We even went to Scootfest somewhere in the UK a few years ago and I personally can’t recall the name of the place we went to. So even after watching our video, I’m sure there’s like slim-to-none chance that people will grab a map and locate Estonia on it, or read about it that it has long nasty winters with temperatures reaching below -30°C (-22°F) and so on. To be honest, I don’t even care. However, if a non-Estonian person would be interested in riding the spots and rooftops that we have here, then I guess it would be a different story.

Other than the riders in this video, is there a scooter scene in Estonia?

Yes. Most of them are below the age of 18 and we have only a handful of riders over 18. And yes, we do have some occasional annoying kids snaking in the parks that piss everyone off. I guess the only parks where you cannot find any young snakers are in Latvia and Lithuania, haha. The guys I usually ride with are 19+ of age: with myself being in mid-20s and all it’s just easier to communicate & easier to travel and people have become more open and abstract-minded by that time.

Do you still run Wee scooters?

People tend to ask that from time to time and I never know what to answer. It’s a kind of an off and on going thing. I’ve been meaning to restart the production like two years ago, and we even made a test-run of standard and oversized wees with different crossbars regarding wall thicknesses, to try out different weight ratios and compatibilities etc. I haven’t made any bars since, but we are still running those same test-bars that we made two years ago, so we got that goin’ for us, which is nice.

Do you ever plan on coming back to America and do a 10 minute slider?

Planning to fly back to the States part? Yes. I was originally planning to get tickets to west coast last summer but I ended up thrashing my heels at Finscooter jam after doing this huge gap, and they haven’t fully recovered ever since. Doing a 10-minute slider part? Perhaps not 10 minutes but I’d be up for slidering something longer in distance if it was a little steeper than that Williamsburg’s bridge in New York, haha. What the hell was I thinking!

Did you get drafted into the Estonian military? How was that?

Yes, haha. I guess it’s safe to say it was pretty alright actually. It was definitely something else. I took everything as an adventure and as a challenge so I had lots of fun there. I managed to spend the last 6 months of it in the orchestra division as one of the drummers. Musicians are usually pretty intelligent people compared to the other recruits I had met by that time.